Brutal death metal, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 Then
Death metal 1985
Guttural vocals, low tunings, blast beats and tremolo picking. Thrash pushed past the limit of legibility, with two founding schools: Florida and Stockholm.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Entombed - Left Hand Path. The first twenty seconds explain the entire Swedish sound.
Entombed, Left Hand Path (1990) - 3 What you asked about
Brutal death metal 1991
Built for density and weight: dissonant riffing, low guttural vocals and crushing breakdowns.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten. The genre's absolute reference point.
Suffocation, Effigy of the Forgotten (1991) - 4 Where to go next
Slam death metal 1994
Reduces brutal death metal to slow, lurching riffs made purely for moving your head.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Devourment - Molesting the Decapitated. Not subtle, but very effective.
Devourment, Molesting the Decapitated (1999)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Brutal death metal descends from, in order. The last step is the gentlest of Brutal death metal's 1 subgenre - least harsh vocals first, then least heavy.